Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) put on a clinic on Fox News Sunday as he called out Fox News’ anti-Obama Syria lies as absurd, and knocked down the claim that Putin outfoxed Obama.
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ROBERTS: Let me put the final question to Congressman Van Hollen.
Do you believe, as some members of Congress do, that Putin has outfoxed President Obama on all of this?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, if outfoxing means giving the president of the United States everything they asked for and more, maybe that’s kind of outfoxing we need because, look — again, the president had a clear objective: stop Assad from using chemical weapons. In the last six days, we have accomplished that and more.
So, what — and why? Look, Putin was sitting out there —
ROBERTS: Senator Lindsey Graham believes Putin has put the president in a box.
VAN HOLLEN: That’s absurd. Look, Putin was out there. His big ally, Assad, is sitting there, and Putin’s powerless to stop a potential military strike from the United States. What kind of message does that send any other allies Russia has around the world?
So, Putin was acting from a position of weakness, and the reality, as Mike said, is he has some leverage over Assad. He did not want to see military action taken. And at the end of the day, he helped deliver exactly what the United States wanted, which is to put an end to Assad’s weapons of mass destruction.
Rep. Van Hollen demonstrated how Democrats should handle Fox News. The question that was posed to him was based on the biased assumptions that Obama was weak, and Putin got the better of him. Van Hollen used a little bit of common sense to show how absurd the idea is that Obama lost on Syria by getting everything that he wanted.
Those on the left and right who insist on claiming that Putin saved Obama are running into the same logic brick wall that Fox News hit this morning. How did Putin save Obama, when he took all of the risk, and the president got everything that he was asking for? It doesn’t make sense. Putin was acting from a position of weakness, and I think it logical to assume that Obama’s threat of military action is what got Putin to the table.
Putin was faced with a situation where one of his biggest allies could have potentially seen the civil war that he was fighting tilt against him, and he had to do something to prevent the United States from striking Syria to keep Assad in power.
Rep. Van Hollen demolished Fox News’ talking points, and in the process demonstrated that while Republicans fear appearing on any other network than Fox, Democrats can flourish anywhere because they have the facts on their side.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
